Linking the left brain and the right brain

Month – June 2011

Do people really matter? If you have a strong enough process in place, does it make any real difference who you have execute it? Couldn’t you just invest a lot of time defining and documenting a structured and disciplined, software engineering process, then hire cheap labor to follow it? Many companies in various retail service […]

Have you ever made a bad decision? The correct answer is “No, I’ve made many bad decisions.” [Sorry, no other response is acceptable.] Project teams make many bad decisions. Bigger teams and longer projects result in many more bad decisions along the way. Why does this happen? The information being reviewed is wrong and no […]

Many software projects commit suicide. How? Here are a few gruesome ways. Not enough calendar time is allocated. High-quality software takes time. Throwing lots of people at the problem may get the project done faster but there will be many rough edges in the final software. Will customers accept that? The team is understaffed. This […]

There are many passionate debates around the web on the subject of waterfall development versus one agile approach or another (e.g. Scrum, Kanban, Lean or XP). Most of those debaters are wrong. All wrong. There is a fatal flaw in their logic. What is it? I’ll get to that. Firstly, what is waterfall software development? […]

Here’s the dilemma: Your Scrum team is nearing the end of a Sprint or a release cycle and they have experienced some unforeseen problems. Completing all the planned items appears unlikely. The final build will be deployed for end-user testing so there will be plenty of attention and feedback. You’re left with two choices: Rush […]

There’s an impression among some software developers that agile approaches like Scrum, Kanban, Lean and XP only apply to software products, not other types of software. That impression likely results from naming conventions such as “Product Owner”, “Product Backlog”, “Releases” and “User Stories”. While many of us associate software with desktop applications, there are many […]

Google seems to have started a trend that is growing worse. Google has a history of releasing software labelled “beta”. The beta tag indicates that the software is not yet complete — missing features, increased likelihood of defects, and general usability issues. The beta tag also provides an easy out. If users complain, simply remind […]

Applying metrics to agile projects is a controversial topic. Much of the controversy stems from the nature of agile development. Agile approaches are intended to be flexible and responsive. Metrics seem to imply rigid goals and expectations. Fortunately, that does not have to be the case. Metrics can be valuable tools as long as they […]

Here’s a scenario…your organization decides to implement an agile approach to software development. It could be Scrum, Kanban, Lean, XP, etc. — doesn’t matter. The basics are implemented — small teams, product owners, stories, backlogs, daily meetings, retrospectives, etc. These are all good steps to take but they don’t magically make an organization agile. True […]

Scrum teams can fail for many reasons just like any other team, agile or not. Describing how to succeed is tough because success is often situational. Describing how to avoid failure is simpler. Let’s explore some of most preventable ways to fail. 1. Wrong people on the team especially SM or PO Every project team […]

I see a common mistake made over and over by business and technical teams, and I think agile development can help. In most of these situations, a business operations group is using a minimal software solution and wants to upgrade to something better. The software is often a Microsoft Access application that was quickly developed […]

I’m sure you’ve heard that when doing agile development, your team should start with themes (high-level objectives) and develop epics (high-level stories) that support the themes. The epics go into the product backlog. Later on, the epics will be split into small stories and then tasks suitable for implementation. Just as epics can be broken […]

If you follow activity in the agile software development community, you’ve likely heard of AgileScout.com. The website is owned and operated by Peter Saddington. Peter is an independent agile coach and AgileScout is a news site for all things related to agile software development. I’m telling you this because Peter has published a list of […]

Never under-estimate the ability of people to find ways around the waterfall project, command-and-control structure. Here’s a real, personal story. We’re working on a project to make several upgrades to a large database. It’s about a two-month effort. The PMO (Project Management Office) forces us to follow a rigid waterfall process despite my complaints and […]

I’ve helped many clients, prospects and coworkers solve difficult problems over the years. Often the contact person articulates a problem. I ask open-ended questions to draw out more information. After some back and forth, I offer a concept or two that might help. Sometimes, the response is along the lines of “We tried that and […]

I encounter it all the time — the one-size-fits-all approach to developing software. The underlying methodology can be anything from waterfall to Scrum, Lean, Kanban, XP, etc. People often fall into the “that’s the way we have to do it” trap. These one-size-fits-all (OSFA) approaches may arise when a team is successful and wants to […]

What’s more important, project management or system engineering? Let’s see. Can a group of project managers build a software system without any engineers? No. Can a group of engineers build a software system without any project managers? Yes. That settles it. Engineers are more important than project managers. But wait! I hope you know that […]

I work on a variety of projects. They vary from traditional waterfall to modified (incremental) waterfall to various agile approaches including Scrum. As you can imagine, it can be difficult to keep all the rules straight and determine what artifacts, deliverables or work products are due during any given week. [To add a little more […]

Intro

Welcome to BrainsLink.com - a blog written by Vin D'Amico about enterprise agile and its use in software development and business operations with occasional forays into open-source software and emerging technologies.